In their final match of the 6-Nations Invitational Tournament, India drew 1-1 with Spain. VR Raghunath and Pau Quemada were the goal scorers for the two teams.
India started off aggressively and got their first PC in the 5th minute, though it couldn’t be converted as Quico Cortes saved it for Spain team. It fetched counter attack from the Spanish team which got them a penalty corner to be thwarted by Sreejesh. The tussle between the two sides continued further till the first inroad to the goal by Spain; when Pau Quemada hit the target off a penalty stroke to get the Spanish team lead on the scoreboard.
The teams went for a break after the end of first quarter with same score on the board; coming back in the second quarter, India started exerting more pressure on the opponents and in the 18th minute, they got the equalizer as Raghunath scored after a rebound of his drag flick towards the Spanish goal.
The tussle to take lead continued further, all through the match, without any successful listing on the scoreboard as the two teams ended the match with a 1-1 draw as the final score.
The tournament saw India getting back to their senior pros, but the level of game didn’t get lifted the way it was expected; for the Rio Olympics- India will have to step up their game to a certain extent so that they can make a listing of these tough matches under their part of the scoreboard. While the Indian Coach has already expressed pleasure with the performance of Indian team at the recently concluded Champions Trophy, his comments related to the performance at the Invitational Tournament is awaited; so is the final 16 members name for the Summer Olympics which is just a little more than a month away.